Pneumatic tube delivery systems are widely used in various institutions implemented in different forms depending on the nature of the operations and transactions carried out at a particular facility. Nonetheless, the systems generally share certain basic components. First, a network of tubular conduits is established throughout the facility, branching to user outlets connected to respective send/receive workstations, or portals. Items of interest may be transported between user outlets via the delivery tubes in capsule-like carriers, the contents of which are filled, for example, by users at originating outlets and emptied by users at a receiving outlets. Alternatively, a packaging of the item itself may act as the carrier so that the item is not required to be housed within a separate carrier apparatus for delivery. The carrier's travel through the network of tubular conduits is driven by one or more blower units which generate pneumatic flow (such as by vacuum pressure) sufficient to propel the capsules through different portions of the network. Typically, a computer-based controller unit(s) operates to regulate carrier traffic and maintain overall system operation.
The network of tubular conduits may be quite complex even in modest sized facilities, since delivery access between every combination of user outlets is often required. The network generally incorporates multi-port diverters, or transfer units, at intermediate points physically transferring carriers from one branch (or section) of the tubular conduit network to another for delivery to the proper destination outlet. While such diverter/transfer units markedly reduce redundancy in conduit segments, the network remains quite elaborate in systems serving numerous outlets, with individual conduit segments making numerous turns and bends to serve the many user outlets.
Pneumatic tube delivery systems are employed, for example, in financial institutions such as banks to remotely conduct customer transactions in real time. Industrial and retail facilities also employ these systems to transport payload items such as documents, currency, parts, or merchandise from one location to another. Perhaps the most prevalent and demanding uses may be in healthcare institutions such as hospitals, where the need for quick, efficient and secure physical transport of items between remote locations within the facility tends to be the rule, not the exception. Items such as pharmaceuticals, lab specimens, blood products, and the like must be passed between different staff members quickly and reliably. It is not uncommon for a hospital to carry out several thousands of transports of delicate payloads like this on a daily basis.
In healthcare settings, for instance, certain items like blood work and other test results, may be highly time sensitive. They may be of greater urgency than other deliveries that entered the delivery ‘queue’ earlier and are awaiting traffic control clearance for delivery initiation. Also, there may be certain handling protocols and restrictions that must be followed for certain types of payload items, as determined by a given institution's business or field of endeavor.
Hence, there is a need for a system which adaptively prescribes and carries out transport characteristics appropriate for specific payload items based on information the system acquires for or from the items.